


Discovering Richard Poole

by VirginiasWolf



Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: Alternate Universe- Richard is alive and thriving, F/M, Which is the only acceptable universe for the show anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 21:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19281688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: While on vacation in Saint Marie, One of Richard's former coworkers from London has a chance to observe him with Camille and their daughter. What she sees makes her realize that everything she thought she knew about the man is completely wrong.





	Discovering Richard Poole

Saint Marie is nice for a vacation Annie Fairchild decides, but she couldn't imagine living here. Her plane touched down yesterday morning and on a whim, she'd stopped in a local restaurant, La Kaz, and been pleased to discover that the owner knew how to make a proper cup of English tea.

"You know, my son-in-law is the only other person on this island who drinks it like this," the woman had insisted. Surely, that was an exaggeration, but it was good tea, and so the next morning Annie is back in La Kaz enjoying another cup of tea when a honey-skinned woman walks in holding the hand of a fussy green-eyed toddler.

"Do I look like a childcare center?" the owner asks, raising an eyebrow. "I have a customer."

"Oh come on Maman, you've said before that she actually helps you draw in even more customers." 

Annie does have to admit that the little girl is pretty adorable, even in her fussy state. She has never wanted her own children, as she feels she is too married to her job to be a good mother, but she's always loved kids and something feels oddly familiar about this child.

"You're using my only grandchild as a manipulation technique." The woman doesn't look annoyed though and Annie has a feeling that this isn't the first time she's put up a bluster and then been happy to take the child anyway.

The child's mother seems to know this as well and bends down to the toddler's level to speak. "Cati, please be good for Grand-Maman. Papa and I will be back for you later this afternoon, okay?" Pausing at the door to La Kaz, the woman turns back to her mother and adds. "I should warn you that she's acting a bit like Richard this morning."

Richard. The name triggers something in Annie's mind and she's suddenly almost certain where she's seen those green eyes before. The toddler's honey skin and curly hair clearly match with her mother, but those eyes. No, they can't be. 

She suddenly remembers that this is the island that Richard Poole had been sent to as inspector six years ago, but there's absolutely no way that man could ever get a woman who looked like Cati's mother to fall in love with him. Poole wasn't exactly a bad looking man, decent by British standards at the very least, but it was his general weirdness that had made even Annie breathe a sigh of relief when he got transferred halfway around the world. The man was almost too hard of a worker; the kind that made his coworkers look lazy for simply needing to take bathroom breaks. He had been annoyingly particular about his workspace too; dictating exactly where everything needed to be down to a fraction of an inch. As if this all wasn't annoying enough, he also had acted like he thought he was better than everyone else in the department, barely pausing to socialize even when required. Annie didn't have any direct knowledge of what his love life had been like, but she'd felt it had been safe to assume that women generally found him unattractive and that he likely controlled his partners as much as he did his workspace. She couldn't imagine what life was like for any poor woman that was fool enough to actually marry the man and reproduce with him, and for that reason, she chooses to assume that Cati's father must be some other green-eyed British man named Richard.  
-  
It seems that La Kaz is the only place on the island that serves decent enough food, and so Annie finds herself back in the restaurant looking for dinner. At this point, she has almost forgotten about her morning encounter with what may or may not have been Richard Poole's wife and daughter until she hears a familiar voice.

"Yes Dwayne, Camille and I would prefer if Cati always used utensils to eat, but we also accept that this concept might be a bit hard for a two-year-old to grasp."

Quietly peering over her menu, Annie sees that the speaker is indeed Richard Poole, and the child from this morning is half asleep in his arms. Something seems slightly different about the man though. The tie that used to choke so tightly at his neck is now absent with two buttons on his white shirt popped open. His posture is also less rigid, and when the woman from this morning, who Annie realizes must be named Camille approaches, he seems to soften even more. 

The scene before Annie is almost completely foreign already, but something tells her that if she makes her presence known, the behavior will change yet again. As quietly as possible she orders her food in hopes that Richard Poole will not hear her voice. 

She isn't quite as clever in her secretive observations of Poole and his family as she thinks though, and someone notices. Luckily it's the owner who chuckles as she brings Annie her food. "You want to know how such an odd pair got together?"

"I don't think they're such an odd pair," Annie lies.

"Oh, they're odd alright. My daughter the islander and her husband the Brit who is supposed to be her superior. Camille's clearly the one in charge though."

So that was how she'd managed to keep from being overwhelmed by the acidic brusqueness that was Richard Poole, by making it known that she was the boss. "So your daughter beat him into submission?" When the woman looks alarmed, Annie quickly adds "I don't mean beating in the literal sense. I mean she bought the hard touch." That sounds stupid too and Annie mentally curses her way with words.

"To some extent yes, my daughter is very spirited when she wants her way, but I believe it has been tenderness that has kept them together."

Now it's Annie's turn to look shocked. "Tenderness?"

"Yes. That man was like a lost puppy when he first came to our island. So used to receiving scraps and beatings that I think he almost fainted the first time I actually made him a home-cooked meal. For a time I think he believed his home was still in London, but Camille helped him realize that home doesn't always have to be a place."

Annie suddenly feels guilty for her past perceptions of Richard Poole. Sure, she hadn't been one of the detectives that had purposely insisted on ostracizing him or making sure he was sent away, but she had been relieved by the knowledge that he was first pushed into a corner away from the general eye and then sent to a place where she'd never have to worry about seeing him again. If he'd been a victim in a murder investigation, she would have quickly realized that all of it; the tidiness, the curt speech, the obsession with the job were signs of someone who felt deeply lonely and cut off from the world around him and was exercising control over the one area of his life where he actually could. Yes, the man she is watching does seem like he is now in an environment where he thrives. His posture is open, other than the hold he has on his daughter. His eyes are sparkling, and although he glances at his wife frequently, it isn't a look of wanting to control, but of true love and adoration. Annie suddenly feels like she's watching a complete stranger, and in a way she is.

"You knew him before he came to the island," the woman suddenly declares and Annie realizes that something in her own body language must betray this half-truth.

"I thought I did. Now I'm not so sure."

**Author's Note:**

> I know some things about Richard in this do not quite fit with what we saw in the series, but I wanted to imagine him being comfortable enough that he finally did little things like not always wear a tie. Also, Cati's full name is Catherine, obviously named after Catherine Bordey, but I couldn't imagine anyone, even Richard Poole, calling a two-year-old Catherine so I gave her a nickname.


End file.
